The topic of this study will be an investigation of testing accommodations for students with disabilities in the school system.
Literature Review
Generally, the findings regarding the use of accommodations in testing to be positive for students (Salend, 2008). While not all studies have demonstrated that students respond positively to accommodations, most of them have shown that students who need accommodations improve significantly after accommodations are provided to them in the classroom (Salend, 2008). Students with disabilities are sometimes thought of and stigmatized by their peers for having extra time or other benefits that the peers do not experience; this attitude can and does sometimes even affect instructors, who fear for the integrity of their examination system if students are allowed extra time or alternative testing accommodations (McKevitt & Elliott, 2003).
Another difficulty that is commonly associated with framing and studying the issue of accommodations in school is the problem with scale. Small scale studies are interesting and important because they can provide interesting case studies and independent information with to the researcher, but there are also problems because the scale is so small. When the scale is larger, there is more information that is made available, but there are so many compounding factors associated with learning disabilities that these large-scale studies cannot really tell the researcher very much about trends in accommodation in the general population of individuals (Elliott, Kratochwill & McKevitt; 2001; McKevitt & Elliott, 2003; Pitoniak & Royer, 2001). All studies, then, come with some caveat for scientific understanding: the literature is certainly not clear on the topic of accommodations for testing, particularly because of all the potentially compounding factors and variables that are associated with learning disabilities, learning disorders, testing, and the American school system as a whole (Elliott, Kratochwill & McKevitt; 2001; McKevitt & Elliott, 2003; Pitoniak & Royer, 2001).
Much of the evidence suggests that the impact of accommodation on testing for students varies based on a wide array of factors. Age and maturity are, of course, two of those factors, as are other demographic factors (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1999). Other compounding factors, like the severity of disability, are two more issues that make it particularly difficult to predict the outcome of the use of accommodations for an individual student (Elliott, Kratochwill & McKevitt; 2001; McKevitt & Elliott, 2003; Pitoniak & Royer, 2001).
Problem Statement
Science and the understanding of learning has significantly evolved over the years. Today, it is understood that there are many variations in the ways that people learn and the different processes by which learning can be mostly maximized. However, sometimes instructors are unwilling to give testing accommodations to students because of the perceived difficulties associated with these accommodations; some instructors even fear that students who have accommodations to take tests in alternative locations are compromising the integrity of the test itself (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1999).
As such, many instructors are unwilling to participate in the practice of giving accommodations—and when they are forced by law, they do so only half-heartedly, unwilling to put effort or time into understanding the needs of the student (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1999). In the United States today, accommodations are required by law in certain situations, and the most common types of accommodation—extended time, American Sign Language interpretation, and dictated response accommodation—remain a struggle for instructors and for students (Pitoniak & Royer, 2001). The struggle to address this problem is one that haunts the American school system to this day. Part of the problem is that the literature in support of accommodations in testing is extensive but highly specific to certain disabilities; broader investigation of trends associated with disability and testing should be developed through this particular piece of research.
Sample and Location
The locale of this study will take place in an elementary school in Virginia about 63 miles south of Richmond. The school accommodates grades Pre-K through fourth grade. This study will focus on a sample of students who have been identified with learning disabilities and who are mainstreamed during assessments. Finally, students were given assessments to determine their ability to utilize the accommodation aligned with their specified disability. In essence, this study will measure whether or not a specified accommodation will yield an increase in student performance. The purpose of this study will be to specified accommodations for testing with the potential positive outcomes for students; when students are placed in a new environment, they will either test more effectively or they will not. The implications of the different testing opportunities will be investigated in some depth. The locale of this study will take place at a correctional institution in Virginia, approximately 57 miles south of Richmond.
Research Questions
The research questions that will be investigated in this particular research study are as follows:
If provided the appropriate specified accommodation, will students identified with disabilities be successful during assessments?
Is there a significant relationship between aggressive behavior and personality?
Hypothesis/Variables or Phenomena
The researcher hypothesizes that students with disabilities will do significantly better on the assessments using their prescribed accommodations. The researchers also hypothesis that most students in the control group will also do better on their examinations than they would normally do if given extra time or a quiet room—however, the difference for the control group will be significantly smaller than for the experimental group. The researchers also suggest that the students in the control group will be more confident of their performance on both exams, while those with learning disabilities will be more confident concerning their performance when they have their typical accommodations.
Methodology and Design
This study will take place in an elementary school in Virginia about 63 miles south of Richmond. The school accommodates grades Pre-K through fourth grade. The subjects of this study will be students in this population—some of whom require accommodations in testing, and others who do not require any such accommodations in testing. The students will be taken from the pool of students in the mainstream classes, and should be students of average performance. The students who require accommodations will be given assessments both in their normal accommodations and then a second, similar assessment in the classroom; the differences in their assessment grades will be tabulated and compared. In the control group, students needing no accommodations will follow the same procedure. The students who need no accommodations will, of course, be provided with accommodations that make sense, like extra time or a quiet room in which to take the test—not an interpreter. The differences between the test score with accommodations and without will also be tabulated for students in the control group. The differences will then be compared for the two groups.
Both groups of students will also be given surveys after their assessments that will ask them which assessment they feel they did better on. They will be asked about their feelings during each assessment and asked to choose which type of assessment they would choose given their normal experiences. These qualitative results will also be tabulated and compared between the two groups.
Purpose Statement
This study will focus on what influences aggressive behaviors through personality variables among males and whether or not there is a correlation among aggressive behaviors and personality. Finally, participants will be surveyed to obtain additional information on their personality type and how their personality influences their behaviors.
Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to identify appropriate testing accommodations for students who have been identified with a specific disability. Particularly through a quantitative method, this descriptive research study will desire to examine whether or not having a specific accommodation for a specified disability would increase student performance during assessments. Students are being evaluated based on their objective performance on their assessments, but they are also assessed based on their qualitative response to different facilities and accommodations. This information will give the researchers both qualitative and quantitative results regarding both the perception of success or failure and the actuality of success and failure. Much can be gleaned from learning how an individual student reacts to testing well or badly and the perceived sense of success or failure on an assessment.
Data Collection
Data collection, because it will be done using human subjects, must be carried out in accordance with a number of important ethical guidelines. Human subjects must be aware of what they are participating in, and the parents of the students must be made aware of the program that their students are taking part in. The ethical concerns for working with children are very significant as well, because students should be protected from any harm associated with educational studies. When the researchers are collecting this data, they must be responsible and care for the students’ and families’ privacy.
When the research is conducted on the students, the researchers must take care to ensure that the results of the study are blinded, so to speak, so that the results can be analyzed and understood. Because the results will be a mixture of qualitative and quantitative analysis, the resulting information will be more varied. The researcher is focused on collecting data on the effectiveness of testing accommodations for students with disabilities—determining whether certain disabilities are actually helped by the use of testing accommodations for the student with the disability.
Data Analysis
The experimental and control group for this experiment will both provide the researchers with assessment scores in different locations. Each individual’s assessment score—shown as a number rather than a name—will be graded in both circumstances, and associated with the individual’s survey results. The general trends for each group will be determined through statistical analysis, and then the general trends for both groups will be compared. The trends for each group should also be compared with the qualitative perceptions of each student, as the perceptions of success and failure can often be interesting starting points for discussion insofar as the psychology of accommodations are concerned.
References
Elliott, S. N., Kratochwill, T. R., & McKevitt, B. C. (2001). Experimental analysis of the effects of testing accommodations on the scores of students with and without disabilities. Journal of School Psychology, 39(1), 3-24.
Fuchs, L. S., & Fuchs, D. (1999). Fair and Unfair Testing Accommodations. School Administrator, 56(10), 24.
McKevitt, B. C., & Elliott, S. N. (2003). Effects and perceived consequences of using read-aloud and teacher-recommended testing accommodations on a reading achievement test. School Psychology Review, 32(4), 583-601.
Pitoniak, M. J., & Royer, J. M. (2001). Testing accommodations for examinees with disabilities: A review of psychometric, legal, and social policy issues. Review of Educational Research, 71(1), 53-104.
Salend, S. J. (2008). Determining Appropriate Testing Accommodations; Complying with NCLB and IDEA. Teaching Exceptional Children, 40(4), 14-22.
